


Time after time

by yumecosmos



Series: 100 Prompts [1]
Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: F/M, First Meetings, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Reincarnation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-29
Updated: 2020-03-29
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:48:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23378638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yumecosmos/pseuds/yumecosmos
Summary: Link and Zelda start again, again.
Relationships: Link/Zelda (Legend of Zelda)
Series: 100 Prompts [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1681465
Comments: 10
Kudos: 57





	Time after time

_Prompt: "Beginnings"_

For Link it's not so much a memory as a feeling that starts under the breastbone, a deep tingling warmth or sometimes more like the first gasp of consciousness waking from a dream. He doesn't know what it means but he knows it's the start of something.

He's three years old, wandering around the academy while his father and the headmaster have some boring adult conversation. By the window there's a girl in a pink dress. His boot scuffs on the floor and she turns, startled, fingertips brushing her lips. Her smile is bright and wide and open like the summer sky.

Hyrule Town is covered in flowers and ribbons and the great bell over the arch rings constantly. Peddlers wave at him as he crosses the square. Distracted, he trips over the girl crouched down by the corner of the shoemaker's. She tells him she was looking for the Picori. He spends all morning looking with her and doesn't notice the tiara on her head. They're friends from that day on.

His father was a knight of the queen's guard and he'll be one too. He's known this as long as he's known his own name, but it's just words to him until his ninth birthday, when his old man takes him to meet the princess at the shrine of the Four Sword. They say she can see the future. When their eyes meet, for a second, he can too.

He bursts into the courtyard, high on adrenaline from dodging the castle guards. She turns, fingers pressed to her mouth in a way that's somehow familiar, and suddenly his heart is racing for a whole different reason.

The second time it's familiar in a way that's more than just a feeling and his heart wrenches, because he knows then just how much is lost to them forever.

He winces when the branch cracks and she lands hard on the forest floor. She barely looks at him. She's tan and spry and smells like salt and he's positive he's never seen her before in his life, but he knows her, the way the tide knows the shore.

He jerks the cell door open and she steps forward, calmer than he expected. This time when he sees her face in the flickering torchlight it hits him like a sword between the ribs. His uncle died in the gutter with her name on his lips, her name is a chain connecting him to something dark and heavy and ancient. He wants to shrink from it, but he takes the hand she holds out to him. It's warm.

He opens sand-crusted eyes and she's looking down at him, a silhouette with a siren's voice. He wonders if he's dead. Next time he wakes up, he finds himself not in a castle but a cozy little shack. Her hair is red like the sky at dawn and her name is not Zelda, but it's the beginning of something all the same.

A flash of lightning reveals a tall, hooded shadow by the tower window. He snarls, baring his fangs, a wolf's survival instincts in a world where everything that moves is a threat. Midna laughs at him. The shadow turns, a swift glance, a graceful sweep of her cloak, and an even more primal instinct stills him. She is mysterious and regal and he feels more in awe of her than anything else, but she kneels to look him in the eye.

He's come this far without knowing why the Triforce called him, what he was being tested for. When they meet she smiles like it's a secret between the two of them. _My name is Zelda. You are Link, right? I knew it at first glance._ She feels it too and somehow knowing that gives him hope. The years and the seasons spiral into chaos around him but her name is an anchor to something older and more certain than even time.

He's down on one knee on the carpet, the picture of a well-groomed professional engineer who definitely did not forget his graduation ceremony was today. He hears her footsteps and looks up without thinking. She gives him a sunny smile, and if destiny is trying to tell him something right then he misses it, because he's too busy staring at her.

He's nervous as he enters the throne room, wondering if she'll believe him. He might almost have convinced himself that what he saw was a dream—he's been having plenty of those lately—but the man in the purple rabbit suit who has moved into his house says otherwise. She turns, and his apprehension is gone, the way she welcomes him makes him feel like an old friend. She has those dreams too. It should seem ominous but in a way it's comforting, to know he's not in this alone.

He charges sword-first through the wall of fire, crests of wisdom and power blazing bright. She's waiting on the other side, calmer than he expected, like she always believed he'd save her. _You're the hero of Hyrule_ , she says, and it's not so much the bestowing of a title as the renewal of a vow.

He stands before the altar in the North Castle, waiting with bated breath. She stirs, then gasps, blue eyes flying open as the centuries-old curse finally looses its hold. She bolts up, turns and looks at him... and he realizes with a sinking heart that he hasn't really saved her. Everyone she loves is long dead. When Impa explains what happened, she falls against his shoulder and sobs. It's awkward. He does his best to comfort her. It's a few weeks later when she clasps his hands and really looks at him for the first time, and then he understands that he's her anchor too. The legend is a steady heartbeat, a promise, a refrain.

The training yard smells like sweat and dust, and it's miserably hot. He discards his helmet, earning him a rebuke from the instructor, but he's beaten the instructor twice this morning so it's not as if he needs it. He sends yet another opponent sprawling, sheathes the wooden sword with a flourish—never let it be said that he doesn't take his art seriously. His skin prickles. Someone is watching him. Link turns, and she's leaning over the rampart. Blue eyes connect and he knows, more than ever, that they are joined at the soul. Whether they will be friends or lovers or just strangers with a connection, there isn't a universe where they don't meet.

A whirlwind of shouts, oaths, and thundering feet sweeps him into the castle and deposits him in the observation room. Messengers are sent for the king and his officials. They've found the Hero. He has the Master Sword. It's a sign. Soldiers gape, courtiers whisper. But he's not paying attention to them. His eyes are on the young woman standing by the window who flinches when she hears the news, glances over her shoulder and turns, a graceful sweep of her blue gown, fingertips brushing her lips. Zelda turns, and he feels it like the turn of a key in a lock. The start of something old. (Then her hand slowly clenches into a fist. That's new.)

She's standing in the field in the sunlight, and the sun seems pale next to the radiance that came from her. She turns, hands clasped over her heart— _I always believed... never lost faith in you_ —and everything seems hazy but her face, at last, is clear.

_May I ask... Do you really remember me?_

It's not so much a memory as a feeling. All he has are flashes and he doesn't know what they mean. Maybe the rest will come back to him eventually. Or maybe it won't, maybe they'll start from here like they have before and will again.

One day when they're standing on a hill overlooking the plain, silent princesses carpeting the grass in white, she confesses her powers are fading. She's able to accept it now, the way he always has, always would have. The legend is for them and not the other way around. Then she turns, and smiles. _Still my Zelda_ , he thinks, and he doesn't know where that comes from but his feet carry him toward her by instinct, his soul runs ahead like a wave running to meet the shore, because his heart never left.

She reaches out, their fingers brush. (He doesn't try to kiss her. Something in him wants to, but he knows this isn't the time.) His hand settles into hers and it feels _right_.

It's a start.

**Author's Note:**

> This is mostly just practice, because the only way I'll ever break out of mediocrity is to write more words. Sharing anyway in case somebody might enjoy it :) Critique is always appreciated! 
> 
> Bet you can tell which games I've actually played and which ones I've just watched on Youtube, haha...
> 
> Planning on writing more of these little oneshots, please do give me a shout in the comments if there's a character/theme you'd like to see featured!


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